Books for Christmas

I'm not doing Mailbox Monday since I didn't actually get any books in the mail this week, but I did get these under the tree. For Christmas my DH got for me audio books!


And Another Thing. I loved the Hitchiker series by Douglas Adams so this was a must have for me. It promises to be just as funny. We shall see.




Unseen Academicals. Well, I've read many Terry Pratchett books and found them all highly entertaining. This is the newest and I wanted it. I expect to be highly entertained! It works out good since I joined the Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge and the Totally British Reading Challenge.



He also got some books for me, not on CD. They are:

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

Had to have it. I was going to go ahead and read it now but then I joined the Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge, so I'll just hold it over till next year!

Elvis and the Dearly Departed. This single book has several things I have a soft spot for: dogs, cozy mysteries, southern settings, & humor. With any luck I've found another series to read!


The Greatest Generation. I've been wanting this one for awhile so now I have it! Thanks DH.

What Are You reading on Monday & Mailbox Monday

What Are You Reading

It's Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week.Feel free to pile on a little extra.If you'd like to join in this weekly event, please go to J. Kaye's and leave a link. That way others can find it and join in. Hosted by J. Kaye

I will be reading :

New Tricks by John Levitt

This Week I'm listening to:

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (still)

Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich

Last week I finished:

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
The Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do).Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. Mailbox Monday is hosted by The Printed Page.

From Amazon I got:

New Tricks by John Levitt

Unleashed by John Levitt

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sara Palin

Over the Whispernet I got these for my Kindle:

Psych: Mind Over Magic by William Rabkin

I got these absolutly free for my Kindle:

Jerry of the Islands by Jack London

Michael, Brother of Jerry by Jack London

The Jeeves Collection P.G. Wodehouse

(Well, I paid $1 for The Jeeves Collection)

Happy reading everyone!

Sunday Stealing - Holiday Meme

I visited HODGEPODGESPV and decided to participate in the Sunday Stealing: Lola's Holiday Meme I saw at her place. 1. What is your favorite holiday show/animated show? A Christmas Story. This one makes me laugh every year.
2. What holiday character do you think you're most like? Mrs. Claus
3. What holiday character does your spouse think you're most like? Santa Claus
4. Favorite Christmas/holiday song? I love the old songs
5. Most hated Christmas/holiday song? Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.
6. If you have an all holiday music radio station when do you start listening to it? I don't listen to it. I listen to Christmas CDs at home.
7. If you have an all holiday music radio station do you love it or hate it? I'm sure I would probably like it if I listened to it.
8. Have you ever wrapped yourself as a Christmas present? YIKES!!.
9. Who is Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer's father? Donner.
10. Do you drive your neighborhood or one near you at night to look at other people's holiday decorations? YES
11. When you see a heavily decorated house do you think, 'oh that's lovely'? Or do you think, 'oh criminy, that looks like Christmas threw up all over their lawn'? I enjoy looking at them.
12. Are you counting the days to Christmas with excited anticipation or dread? A little of both.
13. When was the last time you had your photo taken with Santa? Did you sit on his lap? When I was 5. My dogs have had their picture taken with him the last 3 years.
14. Do you make a Christmas list for your spouse or significant other or do you rely on them to pick your gift(s) without a clue from you? He wants a list to choose from, so.....
15. When do you put up your tree? I haven't put up one in the last 3 or 4 years..
16. Real or fake? Fake, no needles to clean up.
17. When do you take your tree down? Back when I put them up I always took them down around the 31st. It must be done before I have to go back to school.
18. Do you shop the day after Christmas sales? What do you shop for? Yes, I like to go to Lifeway for gifts for next year, and to other stores for boxes, bags, tissue paper etc.
19. Is your work/office having a holiday party this year? Will you attend? Yes and Yes
20. Do you have your New Year's Eve Plans set yet? Yes, we always get together with family friends that night.

Steampunk

I am reading Boneshaker which says on the front that it is Steampunk, a genre I hadn't heard of before. I had to look it up and this is what Wikipedia says:

Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments .... Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage's Analytical engine); these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or with a presumption of functionality.

I found this interesting and will keep my eyes peeled for other odd genre or sub genre names. I'd like to hear if you have any in mind.

Giveaway at Sweeps4Bloggers

Sweeps4Bloggers is giving awaw 5 copies of I Alex Cross. Go check it out for the rules!

Give Away at Jen's Book talk

KNIGHT OF PLEASURE by Margaret Mallory!

Jen has 5 copies to giveaway thanks to Hachette!

The deadline to enter is December 20, 2009
There is a FORM to fill out and then just leave a comment to let her know you filled in form. Only residents of the U.S. or Canada are eligible to win

Click on the picture or on Jen's Book Talk for the details.

Giveaway at The Eclectic Reader

Win one of these books at The Eclectic Reader

To celebrate blogging friendships, the end of 2009 and the start of the new year, Two Lucky Readers of The Eclectic Reader will win the book of their choice from above. All books are brand new and the winners choice will be purchased by me from The Book Depository in the UK or the US specifically for the winner. Please click on the picture or HERE to read the post and join in the fun!

What Are You Reading & Mailbox Monday

What Are You Reading & Mailbox Monday

It's Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week.

Feel free to pile on a little extra.If you'd like to join in this weekly event, please go to J. Kaye's and leave a link. That way others can find it and join in.

Hosted by J. Kaye

I will be reading :
Boneshaker (Sci Fi Essential Books) by Cherie Priest

This Week I'm listening to:
The Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Last week I finished:
Dakota by Martha Grimes
Dog Days by John Levitt

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do).Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. Mailbox Monday is hosted by The Printed Page.

I got these books this week from half.com :

From the book: In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner displays and unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young japanese American girl from his childhood in the 1940's - Keiko Okabe, whth whome he foraged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family were evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry could only hope that their promise to each other would be kept. Now, forty years later, Henry explores the hotel's basement for the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot even gegin to measure. His search will take him on a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made for family, for love, for country.


Amazon Product Description:
It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

Saturday 9

Saturday 9 is hosted by Sam at Saturday 9. Welcome to Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

Saturday 9: Don't Talk to Strangers
1. Tell us about a night that you spent with someone who was a stranger, yet by the end of the night you were very close. The only time I've ever spent the night with a stranger was back in college, the first night with a room mate in the dorm. We did become friends.
2. When is the last time you rode the bus?
Last year when I took my 2nd graders on a field trip.
3. Describe the last time you stood up for a cause.
Happy, fulfilled.
4. What is something you would like to do, but you're afraid of the risk(s)?
Buy a new house, but I'm too close to retirement.
5. What would you most like to accomplish before the year is over?
Not enough time to accomplish much.
6. Name something you'll miss about 2009.
Nothing that I can think of.
7. If you could invent something, what would it be?
Something to clean my house and keep it clean.
8. What first got you started blogging?
Finding someone to talk about books with.
9. How did you find this meme?
Visiting HODGEPODGESPV

What Are You Reading & Mailbox Monday

It's Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week. Feel free to pile on a little extra.If you'd like to join in this weekly event, please go to J. Kaye's and leave a link. That way others can find it and join in.
Hosted by J. Kaye

I will be reading :
Dog Days by John Levitt
Burning Bridges by Laura Anne Gilman

This Week I'm listening to:
Dakota by Martha Grimes
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Last week I finished:
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Sudden Fury by William W. Johnstone

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do).

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. Mailbox Monday is hosted by The Printed Page.

From The Book Depository:

Product Description:
In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

From half.com:

Product Description: First in a new urban fantasy series-with a bite as magical as its bark. Mason used to be an enforcer, ensuring that suspect magic practitioners stayed in line. But now he scrapes out a living playing guitar. Good thing he has Louie, his magical...well, let's call him a dog. But there are some kinds of evil thateven Louie can't sniff out. And when Mason is attacked by a supernatural assailant, he'll have to fall back on the one skill he's mastered in music and magic-improvisation.

Mary Stewart

I read a lot of her books in the 60's and 70's and remember wanting to read more and more. I've seen her books popping up in the book blog blogosphere. Needless to say, I'm considering reading some of them again. The one I remember as liking the most is Airs Above the Ground.

Which Mary Stewart novel should you read? Your Result: Airs Above the Ground Lovely Vanessa March did not think it was strange for her husband to take a business trip to Stockholm. What was strange was the silence that followed. Then she caught a glimpse of him in a newsreel shot of a crowd near a mysterious circus fire in Vienna and knew it was more than strange. It was downright sinister.
The Ivy Tree
Touch Not the Cat
Wildfire at Midnight
My Brother Michael
Nine Coaches Waiting
Madam, Will You Talk?
This Rough Magic
Which Mary Stewart novel should you read? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz